GIGASOC: Building the Future of Next-Generation Spaceflight, One Node at a Time

About

The Gamechanging Innovation through Gigabit Archiectures in Systems Operations Centres (GIGASOC) project is designed to push spaceflight innovation through driving mission operations techniques, technologies and architectures in the face of emerging high-speed interplanetary data links in the 1 Gbps class.

Gigabit networks in space are now being enabled through laser link technologies. SFU has been involved in studies around the implementations of such links, and also the implications of supporting such links in missions. An interplanetary network in the 1 Gbps data range requires: infrastructure at the remote destination (Moon, Mars, Asteroids, or beyond) to collect and distribute high speed data; destination-side systems to monitor and control high-speed networking in human missions; the interplanetary link itself; the infrastructure on Earth to receive, respond to, and utilize data at these high rates.

A major technical problem for using a Gigabit network across the solar system is that it is difficult to feed that network with science and operations data that fully utilize the "pipe" that is available. Surface communication technologies work in the tens of Mbps range. Emerging Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) technologies are becoming available, but must be integrated to produce enough throughput. This is especially true in asteroid missions, in which the speed of exploration combined with the expected low-mass, power, and volume of systems, produces both a significant need for high-speed networking, but a significant difficulty in providing for high-speed networking. In addition, 1 Gbps networks require in-habitat and/or internal vehicle/robotics, etc., networking on the order of 10 Gbps to fully process data before feeding to the Space Internet.

The Earth-side mission operations infrastructure must also respond to the incoming torrent of data. This means not only advanced mechanisms for displaying, manipulating, monitoring, and storage of information, but also a massive boost in the number of participants utilizing the data to produce science. Therefore Participatory Exploration (PE), in which users external to space agencies access science data, and produce critical scientific analysis, will be increasingly the most important form of mission operations. Gigabit space operations will thus move spaceflight mission operations on Earth from an activity primarily managed by space agencies, to one in which academia, industry and the general public represent the primary stakeholders in the information being received from the exploration destination.

Gigabit space operations require Gigabit planetary/destination analogues for testing and development. However, remote destinations on Earth are generally not capable of receiving 1 Gbps satellite communications at affordable rates. This means that next-generation analogue sites must therefore completely replicate the "Earth" mission operations infrastructure at the remote sites, or new sites must be established that have direct fibre-type connectivity to space agency networks. The first solution will be a stopgap measure, but rugged remote sites are still critical for some kinds of technology tests, especially mobility and traverse management. Primary advanced mission operations Research and Development will probably be most supported by the second class of sites - sites optimized for direct high-speed communications with space agency networks.

We are already at a time when advanced Space Internet projects like NASA GSFC's Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI) have moved the use of the Internet into space exploration, especially for human space operations. However, we are now in an age where the world is transitioning to unified networks supporting the Intercloud. Cloud technologies will be critical at the Destination, in space vehicles, and on Earth, to fully utilize Gigabit exploration. In other words, GIGASOC will investigate how we transition from a Space Internet to a Space Intercloud.